Coyote kills Chihuahua as owner walks dog

Every morning before the sun rose, Cecilia Lincoln took her male Chihuahua, Zuki, for a stroll around their yard in WillowWood, a neighborhood in southwest Orange County.

The little dog rarely strayed beyond reach, so Lincoln didn't use a leash. That was never a problem until Sunday morning, when a coyote bolted from the shadows, snatched Zuki in its jaws and took off like lightning.

"It really hurt. It's like losing a child," Lincoln said Tuesday night, still shaken by the fatal attack.

It was the latest in a series of coyote attacks in southwest Orange, where the usually reticent animals have become increasingly brazen. Long considered a nuisance in Central Florida because they rummage through trash cans, stalk cats and yip and howl after dark, coyotes are more troublesome in neighborhoods with woodlands and green space, according to wildlife experts.

The state Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission organized an informational meeting in January for concerned residents of Turnburry Woods and Torey Pines. Some coyotes traipsed into back yards to kill dogs; others were suspected in the disappearances of cats.

An Ocoee neighborhood hired trappers to kill coyotes after a dog was taken from a backyard on Christmas.

The attack on 15-year-old Zuki, which was reported to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, was typical of coyotes, which are opportunistic hunters, said Stan Gehrt, a wildlife ecologist at Ohio State University who has tracked coyotes in the Chicago area for more than a decade.

The animals tend to be more aggressive in January during mating season and in late April and early May, when most litters are born, Gehrt said. The coyote may have seen the Chihuahua either as food or a threat to a new litter, he said.

Judy Kaufman, who lives in the neighborhood, thinks she has seen the suspect animal: a lean, grayish canine with orange eyes. The unsettling news convinced her not to walk her pugs, Nellie and Winnie, after dusk anymore.

"The girls and I are home before dark now," she said.

Kit Zayas wonders whether a coyote snatched Diva, her 10-year-old jet-black cat. The feline princess, whose throne was a blanket on the back of a leather couch in Zayas' living room, went missing about a week ago.

"She's never, ever been gone at night," Zayas said.

Because coyotes are often more active at night, the wildlife commission advises against letting small pets roam or walking them at night in an area where coyotes have been seen or where the stealthy hunters could be hiding, said agency spokeswoman Joy Hill.